Chapter 5: Strategic Family Therapy – Flashcards
Unlock all answers in this set
Unlock answersquestion
What did strategic family therapy grow out of?
answer
The communication theory developed by Bateson's schizophrenia project
question
What does strategic family therapy emphasize?
answer
directive or task-oriented interventions over understanding the meaning of symptoms
question
What are the three distinct models?
answer
1. MRI brief therapy 2. Haley and Madanes Strategic Family Therapy 3. Milan Strategic Therapy
question
Where were all three models developed?
answer
At the Mental Research Institute in Paulo Alto
question
What and who influenced a lot of the strategic models?
answer
Influenced by hypnotic principles and Milton Erickson
question
What are the pragmatic strategies of problem solving and change?
answer
1. Brief 2. Efficient 3. Non-Pathological
question
What were the major contributions
answer
1. Problems can result from family interaction sequences 2. Families often unintentionally perpetuating their problems 3. Sudden change is possible
question
What was the result of the development of these models specifically the brief approach?
answer
The brief approach focused on interrupting cycles in which attempts to solve problems make the problems worse
question
Who developed Axioms?
answer
Watzlawick, Beavin, and Jackson
question
What are Axioms?
answer
Basic truths about communication
question
What are the four main basic truths of communication?
answer
1. people are always communicating 2. Communication defines the relationship between sender and receiver 3. Punctuation of communication sequences impacts the relationship 4. communication is either symmetrical or complementary
question
What does it mean that people are always communicating?
answer
- All behavior is communicative and so one cannot not communicate
question
What are a report function?
answer
The content of a message that conveys information
question
What is a command function?
answer
A command function dictates the relationship between sender and receiver, it is a statement that defines the relationship
question
What is symmetrical communication?
answer
when individuals communicate in similar ways (going to escalate)
question
What is complementary communication?
answer
when individuals have different communication systems defined by distance
question
What are the four main types of pathologic communication?
answer
1. Denying that one is communicating 2. Sending paradoxical messages 3. Discrepant punctuation of communication sequences 4. Symmetrical escalation
question
What is sending paradoxical messages?
answer
Messages the contradict themselves (telling them to do something that is inconsistent)
question
How is sending paradoxical messages best resolved?
answer
Through metacommunication
question
What is metacommunication?
answer
It is talking about the way they are communicating with one another
question
What do normal families have?
answer
1. They maintain integrity in the face of environmental challenges through negative feedback 2. Are able to communicate and are flexible
question
What are the three strategic vies of problem formation?
answer
1. cybernetic 2. structural 3. functional
question
What is cybernetic problem formation?
answer
- Attempted solutions perpetuate problems (positive feedback escalation) - Families want to maintain homeostasis
question
What is structural problem formation?
answer
Family rules or hierarchy promote problems
question
What are the two types of change in structural problem formation?
answer
first order and second order
question
What is first order change?
answer
It gets the family to change an action
question
What is second order change?
answer
It gets the family to change the family rule or underlying rules
question
What is functional problem formation?
answer
When problems are the result of people trying to protect or control one another covertly so their symptom serves a function for the system
question
What didi the MRI group use as problem formation?
answer
Just cybernetic
question
What did Haley use for problem formation?
answer
He added structural and functional to cybernetic
question
What did the Milan model use for problem formation
answer
All three but mostly functional
question
What is a directive?
answer
- An assignment, telling family to do something - Getting family to do something they wouldn't ordinarily do
question
What is reframing?
answer
- Helping family members understand symptoms in a different light - It can often make people fell better about
question
What is Paradoxical Intervention?
answer
1. Prescribe the symptom - do more of the symptom 2. Pretend technique 3. Tell family member to do something that will make them want to do things less
question
What is pretend technique?
answer
Telling the family to pretend to have the symptom
question
What is the function of the pretend technique?
answer
takes away the function of the symptom, the function is met by having the pretend symptom
question
What prescribing ordeals?
answer
When you make the symptom more trouble then it is worth. Example: insomnia - every time you wake up you have to mop the floor, its ends up being more trouble then its worth and we would rather just stay asleep
question
What are second order interventions?
answer
Changing the second order family structure problem and rules and getting the root of the issue
question
What does the Milan model emphasize?
answer
Questioning family belief symptoms attached to behaviors and interrupting destructive family games
question
What was the shift in focus on changing family behavior to?
answer
It shifted to changing families beliefs about their behavior
question
What did the Milan model believe about view of problem formation?
answer
It endorsed the 3 strategic views of problem formation (cybernetic, structural, and functional)
question
How does the Milan model view problem formation?
answer
As a "Game"
question
What is "The Game"?
answer
unacknowledged strategies and destructive pattern of family interactions in which members attempt to control each others behavior
question
Do family members have control over the rules of the game?
answer
No
question
What as a therapist do you want to do with the game?
answer
Change the rules of the game not the players
question
What are children symptoms often a result of?
answer
Power struggles between family members, often parents
question
What are the therapeutic goals of the Milan model?
answer
Help the family play a new game or a different game
question
how was the early Milan model structured?
answer
It was a very structured team approach drawing on strategic techniques
question
How was the evolved model structured?
answer
It was a more collaborative approach
question
What did the Milan Early Model mean by Long Term Brief Therapy?
answer
1. Low # of session but spread out 2. Meeting once a month over long time
question
What were the 5 steps in the structured treatment of the Milan Early model?
answer
1.Presession 2. Session 3. Intersession 4. Intervention 5. Post-session
question
What happens in presession?
answer
- Meeting with the team to discuss any prior knowledge on the family coming in
question
What happens in session?
answer
The conductor meets with the family
question
What happens in intersession?
answer
- a break - The conductor goes and meets with the team
question
What happens in intervention?
answer
the conductor goes back in and presents the intervention the team decided on
question
What happens in post session?
answer
The team meets with conductor and goes over what happened
question
What is positive connotation?
answer
Milan's take on reframing, emphasizes that symptoms protect family harmony
question
What are Counterparadoxes?
answer
telling family members not to chain or change too quickly. This slows down attempted solutions by the family
question
What are rituals?
answer
Prescribe the family to do something highly scripted, the interactions act to interrupt patterns in the family. An example of this would be having a "funeral" for a symptom
question
What is the invariant prescription?
answer
Used with schizophrenics and eating disorders patients. You tell parents to leave in mysterious ways it separates the parents and the child d
question
What is hypothesizing in the Milan Evolved Model?
answer
It is identifying ideas/theories of what going on and allowing hypothesis to dictate the conversations with families
question
What is neutrality?
answer
It is when the therapist creates distance between themselves and the client
question
What stance is the therapist encouraged to have during therapy in the Milan evolved model?
answer
A nonjudgemental stance
question
What are the four types of circular questioning?
answer
1.Relational/interaction pattern questions 2. Future-oriented questions 3. Comparisons and ranking questions 4. Before and after change questions
question
What are relational/interaction pattern questions?
answer
Asking family member what another family member does when something happens
question
What are future oriented questions?
answer
They are about the relationship between two from the view of another, how one person responds or would respond to actions of another EX: Asking child, How does your dad react when you mom leaves unexpectedly?
question
What are comparison and ranking questions?
answer
EX: Who gets the most upset when...
question
What are before and after change questions?
answer
EX: How did things change from before a certain event happened
question
What is the metaphor that the Milan Model uses to describe the destructive patterns of a family?
answer
"The Family Game"
